View article

Abstract Since Baumeister and Leary (1995) published a seminal paper on the need to belong, research in this area has proliferated. We review the current state of the literature, highlighting inconsistencies in findings, and suggesting future avenues of research. We focus on research findings on immediate cognitive, emotional, and behavioral reactions to social rejection and acceptance, the processes that underlie responses to threats to belonging, some possible biological underpinnings of the need to belong, the role of individual differences in reactions to threats to belonging, and long term consequences of an unmet need to belong. A more complex picture of the need to belong is emerging, but greater focus on underlying processes and the influence of individual differences is needed.